Look, I know of no other era in the history of the world with which to compare this current political climate other than the German Weimar Republic shortly before the rise of Adolph Hitler. I say this not to compare any current politician or group of politicians to that group, but only to compare tactics to tactics.
I've often wondered how it was that the Nazi's came to power in a country filled with reasonable moderate normal people. Pushed to the brink... sure. Lots of poverty and anger... I can accept that. But still, Nazi thuggery aside, don't right meaning people stand up to lies, half truths, and outrageous behavior? Not ten years before, the exact same tactics that Hitler used to win the Chancelorship of Germany landed him in prison because normal everyday Germans, still smarting from the end of World War I and the reparations that followed, did not and would not believe the lies he was spouting.
I've had my differences with the Republican Party, and in the distant past, I even admired them for a short period of time. But that was a different Republican Party than the one trying to fool the country today. While I might have disagreed with everything George W. Bush stood for, I nevertheless thought that he was speaking the truth (from a slightly skewed perspective) about the world. If Kerry said the economy was bad, Bush would say the economy was good and explain why. I didn't necessarily agree with Bush, but I wouldn't feel that he was just making stuff up. I might have disagreed with the Republican Party, but I listened to what they had to say with respect before I made up my mind on which way to vote.
I tried to do the same thing with the current Republican Party last night. Even though the PAC's and the politicians out there have been spouting off a lot of patently false nonsense lately (Birthers, swiftboating the President on Osama, etc...), I figured that when it came time for the Republican convention all that crazy stuff would stop and the truth (or something like it) would come out and I would be able to judge the Republican party for what they actually stood for and not for some crazy belief that the President was Kenyan, Muslim, Communist, and out to destroy America in some vast conspiracy. Boy, was I wrong.
I listened to the speeches. They were dialed back a bit, but they were every bit as looney as the rest of the nonsense the Republicans have been speaking since 2008. To listen to it, you would think that Barack Obama was the antithesis of everything good and that he had singlehandedly caused every single problem faced by Americans today. You name it, he was blamed for it. And in a vacuum completely - nobody else had done anything wrong in this country. Rush Limbaugh half-blamed Obama for Hurricane Isaac yesterday and the rest of the party seemed ready to follow suit.
I'm not just disappointed. I'm alarmed. To be fair, Mitt Romney is too good for these bunch of crazy people he's been saddled with. The Grand Old Party sounds like a bunch of old people blaming (fill in the blank) for everything from cancer to pollution. I just nod politely and walk away. But, to bring this around full circle, I wonder if that's what the Germans did. Did they really believe half of the crap that the Nazi party was spouting, but assumed, incorrectly, that the more moderate elements of the Party would control things? This is one of those questions that can probably only be answered if the Republicans win and we look back on this same subject four years from now.
I recognize that such hyperbole is almost always false. Everybody claims that a Spanish Inquisition is coming, but nobody really ever expects it, and hence, they rarely ever actually occur. Its just as valid that President Obama might really be a bad choice for this country and that he really will usher in the economic end times. There really is no way to know - since both claims are rooted more in fear and guesswork than based in fact.
Unfortunately that's the only way people are being given to decide. We are presented with our worst fears and told to choose between which apocalyptic future we think is more likely to happen. That's no way to make an informed vote and both sides are to blame.
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